🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom. An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness". The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions. "As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said. 'Possibility to Damage Confidence' The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented. "Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness. A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."